Greater Manchester is introducing a clean air charging zone from 30th May 2022, with some vehicles having an automatic exemption until the 1st June 2023. The main vehicles impacted will be:
- Heavy goods vehicles
- Buses
- Coaches
- Hackney cabs and private hire vehicles
- Minibuses (2023)
- Vans (Light goods vehicles) (2023)
- Motorhomes/campervans/motorised horseboxes
The area of the zone is significant, as far west as Standish, as far north as Ramsbottom, as far east as Littleborough and as far south as Woodford and Manchester airport. As such, Bolton will be caught by the zone.
The charges would seem to range from £7.50 per day to £60 per day for the impacted vehicles and an online checker is available to ascertain if you are impacted.
The charges seem to apply to Euro 5 or earlier diesels, or Euro 3 and earlier petrol vehicles. As such, any pre-2016 diesel and pre-2005 petrol vehicles.
Some financial support schemes are being offered via the clean air website, with over £120m of government funding available to try to help people, businesses and organisations get cleaner vehicles. There is currently no intention to extend the scheme to private cars. The Clean Air Zone Financial Support Scheme will assist the eligible groups in either replacing or retrofitting non-compliant vehicles to meet emissions standards.
To begin with, the funding will be targeted to support micro-businesses, sole traders, the voluntary sector and private owners and will be available as a lump sum grant, contribution towards vehicle financing or a combination of the two.
The scheme is currently open for applications from eligible HGV owners. Other eligible vehicle applications will follow in late January 2022. If you believe that you may be impacted by the change, then you can use the online checker to see if you will be caught in the live schemes (Bath, Birmingham, and, from 29th November 2021, Portsmouth).